by Kwame Alexander
Josh and Jordan (aka: JB) are twins and the stars of their junior high basketball team. Their father is basketball legend, Chuck Bell. Josh lives and breathes basketball until his world is rocked when he is suspended from playing basketball, his dad begins having serious health issues, and JB falls for the new girl at school.
Written as a series of poems, Kwame Alexander's novel is a breath of fresh air. Some poetry is almost painful to read and even harder to understand. But Alexander's work is smooth, rhythmic, and modern. What a talented writer he is to be able to compose a novel in verse that integrates basketball, family, first love, the bond of twins, loneliness, identity, death, and mourning, seamlessly. The arrangement of the words on the page dance and support the syntax, much like pictures support the text in a children's picture book. Multiple themes appear and are openly displayed throughout the book as Basketball Rules. Each caused me to stop and reflect on the story as well as on life.
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Author, Kwame Alexander's website: http://kwamealexander.com/
Book trailer:
A real, live Chuck Bell: https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/b/bellch01.html
